The App Conundrum: 90% of mobile time, but a battle for new users

The global growth of mobile platforms has created new digital consumers and more digital time, and Italy is no exception: 70% of the total digital audience accesses content on mobile devices, either exclusively or in addition to desktop. Within this new ecosystem, findings from Comscore MMX Multi-platform highlight the importance of smartphone apps, which are responsible for 90% of total mobile time in Italy. App users are turning to their handheld devices for more consumer needs, and while the opportunities are clear, brands should be aware of the challenges associated with this potentially lucrative platform.

Some key insights on smartphone apps consumption:

• Italians spend more time on mobile than desktop, with mobile accounting for 64% of the total digital time, and apps accounting for 90% of mobile minutes.
• 28% of smartphone app users have compared product prices through a mobile device in June, with almost a third of them doing so on a weekly basis.
• 37% of the smartphone app users access social networking almost every day, with over a third of them sharing photo or video on social also on a daily basis.
• 27% of those who have downloaded at least one app in a month also access local/world news apps daily.
• The greatest challenge facing app providers globally is the barrier to download: In Italy, only a quarter of the mobile users download any new apps in a month.